Anonymous web browser Tor is getting a major overhaul

Tor, an anonymous web-browser that lets you access the Dark Web, is getting a major overhaul.

"The legacy onion system has been around for over 10 years and its age has started to show," the organisation wrote in a blog post announcing the update. "The new system is a well needed improvement that fixes many shortcomings of the old design, and builds a solid foundation for future onion work."

The Tor network works by bouncing your connection through multiple other users' computers on the network before you finally connect to the internet via an "exit node." So someone from Sweden might have their connection routed through South Africa, Canada, and Denmark, before finally connecting to the internet via Mongolia — masking their true identity and location.

The browser can be used to view the regular internet anonymously — but also lets users access the "Dark Web," websites that aren't indexed by search engines like Google and are only accessible if the user is using Tor.